A printed wiring board is an assembly that includes conductive pathways, or nets, etched from copper sheets that are laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. After the nets are formed, electronic components are assembled onto the printed wiring board such that the board mechanically supports and the nets electrically connect the electronic components.
As the speed of electronic circuits and systems on printed wiring boards increases well into the multi-GHz range, properties of printed wiring board nets become an ever more important consideration in the design, development, and manufacture of printed wiring boards. Measurements may be performed on the printed wiring board nets using a probe connected to a printed wiring board testing system. For example, the probe may be used to measure the response of a printed wiring board net to an applied signal. However, some printed wiring board testing probes are assembled in such a way that malfunctioning or broken elements cannot be easily replaced, resulting in replacement of the entire probe in the test system. In addition, printed wiring board testing probes typically include an arrangement of signal and ground pins that allows for only a limited pattern to be tested by the probes.